Evolving your sales process to win
Acquire, Price, Merchandise, and Sell to Win Today’s Digital Consumer
WHAT MATTERS MOST TO TODAY’S
DIGITAL CONSUMER
Today’s car buyers are very different
than they were 10 years ago. Our proprietary
research has shown that there is a distinct
way that today’s consumers are looking
to search, and a distinct way that they are
looking to buy.
It is emotion, and not logic, that
ultimately gets the deal done. Think about
it, try to call a time when a friend or family
member has called and said “I can’t wait to
show you my new car… I don’t really like the
drive or the feel, and it’s not very practical
for my needs… but dang, I got a great price
on it, I really beat that dealer up”? Those sort
of exchanges just don’t happen. People want
to love the cars they buy. So the ultimate
question is, how should dealers build their
businesses?
HOW TO GET IT RIGHT . . . ACQUIRE,
PRICE, MERCHANDISE AND SELL
Unfortunately, it’s not an easy, quick-fix
solution. If it were, we wouldn’t see longtime established dealerships going out of
business at the rate they are today.
The reality is to do these things right, to
win with today’s digital consumers, dealers
have to evolve the way they market and
sell. In our experience working with some
of the industry’s finest dealers, there are
four critical steps that dealers need to take
in order to enable their people and win with
today’s digital consumers.
ACQUIRE RIGHT
The first step is to acquire right.
Dealers need to have a strong foundation
for their business by acquiring inventory with
a modern cost-to-market appraisal. Sounds
simple, but it’s as true today as it ever was…
the first steps in an effective and profitable
marketing and sales process is acquiring
cars at the right price.
Appraising vehicles before you acquire
them is one of the most important processes
in auto retail because it can make or break
dealers’ potential margins. Whether it’s a
trade-in or at an auction, vehicle appraisals
are critical, and they can be challenging and
time-consuming without real-time market
information.
PRICE RIGHT
SELL RIGHT
The second step is to price right.
Pricing is absolutely critical in protecting
margin and ensuring transparency with
consumers. Cars need to be priced using
industry-accepted pricing proof points that
ensure both transparency and consistency
across information sources.
Our proprietary research here at
MAXDigital has shown that if consumers’
needs are met on the lot – if they are able to
validate the information they find online and
trust in the price is built – then consumers
will negotiate less and are considerably
more likely to make a purchase. Establishing
early and often that a vehicle is priced fairly
can make or break a sale, and thus can make
or break a dealer’s margins.
The 4th and final step is to sell right. This
is the bread and butter of any dealership –
margins and livelihood. The sales processes
and practical sales tools being deployed
by dealers today have simply not evolved
enough. Today’s digital consumers want a
trusted ally on the showroom floor. Dealers
who fail to deliver, will fail to get the sale...
or at least the profitable sale. J.D. Power
and Associates agrees. Their recent white
paper found that dealer treatment, rather
than lowest price, was the top reason both
Internet and non-Internet users chose to
purchase from a given dealer.
Dealers who acquire right, price right,
and merchandise right stand to lose all the
ROI in the equation if they do not empower
and enable their sales team to sell in the way
that today’s digital consumers demand.
So give the consumers what they
want, where they want it, when they want
it. Today’s consumers are starting their
decision-making process way before they
even think about visiting a dealership. In fact,
the majority of consumers have narrowed
down their decision to a couple, if not one,
vehicle. They know what they want and
they come to the dealership to validate their
research and test drive vehicles.
MERCHANDISE RIGHT
The third step is to market right.
Marketing cars is more critical than ever,
and having a consistent and transparent
message is the only way to attract today’s
consumers and close deals when they arrive
on the lot. The goal for innovative dealers
is to start building trust with consumers
right up front/online… so that their desire or
tendency to want to “do battle” on the lot
is diminished and double discounts can be
avoided.
One way to build trust is to make
sure the experience consumers have is
consistent across all touch points– from
what they see online, what they hear from
business development centers and when
they visit in-person on the lot. According to
Google, dealer sites were ranked ahead of
OEM sites, search engines, and third-party
sites as the #1 source of information for
consumers during the shopping process.
WHAT IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW?
Don’t worry, it’s not just you. Check out
maxdigital.com/takethechallenge to see
how you stack up.
CONTACT US
[email protected] | (888)841-0884
1
Deloitte – Driving through the consumer’s mind: Steps in
the buying process (December 2014)